This invention relates to a system and process for managing data within an operational data store, and more particularly for managing the flow and processing of data from multiple distributed data sources to an operational data store.
With numerous application systems residing within a single enterprise, integration has often been an enormous challenge for systems administrators. As businesses move online, the task of unifying disparate application systems may become even more difficult.
The Internet, new business-to-business transactions, and the creation of virtual business communities and distributed enterprise entities has caused a renewed explosion of application-integration challenges. These communities bring together systems of all shapes and sizes, and with them the various database schema and application logic of many corporations. In order for a virtual corporation to operate successfully, a unified view of the virtual enterprise may be required.
An object of the present invention is to overcome these and other drawbacks in existing systems and methods.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and process for managing data from a plurality of distributed data sources.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. To achieve these objects and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a system for unifying data from disparate applications may comprise a plurality of data source modules for providing data in a plurality of data formats; an operational data store module for storing the data; a messaging workflow module for managing: a) a transfer of data to and from the operational data store module and the plurality of data sources; and b) a prioritization of the transfer of the data within the system; and a translation module for processing the data, wherein processing the data includes converting the data in the plurality of data formats from the plurality of data source modules into a data format for the operational data store module.
According to another embodiment of the invention, an information managing and translation system for data received from a plurality of distributed data sources for storage in an operational data store module, the system may comprise a messaging workflow module for managing data, where managing the data comprises receiving the data from the plurality of distributed data sources, prioritizing the received data, and transmitting the received data based on the prioritization; and a translation module for translating data into a specified data format; wherein the translation module receives the prioritized data from the messaging workflow module, translates the prioritized data into a specified format, and transmits the data to the operational data store module.
In a further embodiment of the invention, a method for unifying data from disparate applications for an operational data store module may comprise the steps of receiving data from a plurality of data source modules, where the data is in a plurality of data formats; prioritizing the transfer of the received data to a translation module; and transferring the received data to the translation module, where the data is translated from the plurality of data formats into an appropriate format for storage in the operational data store module.
According to another embodiment of the invention, a method for unifying data from disparate applications for an operational data store module may comprise the steps of receiving a plurality of requests for data from a plurality of output modules, where each output module requires data in one of a plurality of formats; prioritizing the transfer of the plurality of requests to an operational data store module; transferring the plurality of requests to the operational data store; receiving data based on the requests, where the data for each request has been translated by a translation module to a format required by the output module that made the request; and transferring the received data to the appropriate output module.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.